Athletes from around the world will again brave the most-challenging sport on skates as the Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championships sweep into St. Paul in late January.

The spectacle, scheduled for Jan. 24-26 -- which also happens to be the first weekend of the St. Paul Winter Carnival -- is expected to draw tens of thousands of spectators to downtown and lead to some serious spending. Last year, city officials estimated the event drew up to 100,000 people downtown, with athletes and tourists spending $20 million in St. Paul over the course of the weekend.

At a news conference Wednesday, Nov. 14, on the Xcel Energy Center's center ice, Mayor Chris Coleman said the 2012 Crashed Ice event "was too good not to do again."

"It was really magical," Coleman said.

Like last year, the 1,300-foot ice-covered course will snake downhill from the Cathedral of St. Paul and challenge competitors to keep their bones intact as they drop more than 130 feet from start to finish. New for 2013, though, is a four-story starting platform (last year was three stories) and greater distances between obstacles like the ice wall, jumps and rollers, said Team USA coach Charlie Wasley.

He called the new track a "skater's course," with more time for recovery between elements. Skaters will still reach speeds in excess of 40 mph, he said.

And why the taller starting platform?

"We wanted to make it more fun for the athletes," Wasley said.

That includes 100 U.S.

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competitors picked from eight regional qualifying events around the country, starting Dec. 2 in Chicago and culminating in St. Paul on Jan. 6.

Wasley said successful athletes come from various backgrounds -- hockey, downhill skiing, speed skating -- but all need "speed, agility, body control and toughness," he said.

The event will force closures on John Ireland Boulevard and Summit Avenue and detour portions of Metro Transit routes 21 and 65, but Red Bull will provide parking and shuttle services to the cathedral Thursday through Saturday. Red Bull also coordinates and pays for police coverage during the event, so the financial outlay by the city is almost nothing, staff said.

The St. Paul stop is just one of five in the 2013 Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championships. Other stops are Niagara Falls in Ontario, Landgraaf in the Netherlands, Quebec and Lausanne, Switzerland.

The energy-drink maker started sponsoring the sport in 2001 and held races in Duluth in 2003 and 2004.